I have to admit, when I first read this topic I had mixed emotions. I thought it was a great idea, and I'm always looking for ways to try to do good works, but if you know me, you know that I'm not the most out going person in the world. I'm not the type to strike up a conversation with the person sitting in the next booth at a restaurant or standing in line behind me at Target. Not to say that I don't enjoy interacting with friendly people in line, but I'm not one to initiate the conversation. So, with that in mind, I wasn't sure what I was going to do for my random act of kindness. Here are some ideas that I had:
At the beginning of the year I saw a great post on facebook from one of my friends (a fellow ToTer's mom). It stated that she would make,bake, create, or buy something with in the year for the first five people that commented on her post. The catch was, if you responded, you then had to copy and paste her post onto your page and make that same offer to five people. I know what this friend is capable of creating, so I thought about it for about a minute, and jumped on board. I figured it would be great inspiration for crochet projects, too. So, I thought I could use that as my random act of kindness, but then I realized that it wasn't exactly random, and these weren't exactly strangers. So...back to the drawing board.
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| Here is the first gift I made from my fb post. Please ignore me with no make up (yikes!). |
I thought about participating in the pay it forward drive thru charity. I'm not sure what the exact name of it is, but basically you buy the person's meal or drink behind you in the drive thru line or Starbucks line. There is a charity out there that promotes this, but I couldn't find any info online. I saw a pamphlet on it at my son's preschool a while back. I thought it would be the perfect thing for me because then I could avoid having to initiate conversation with a perfect stranger. I decided against it because I decided that I wanted my random act of kindness to benefit someone that really needed help. That may sound sort of holier than thou, but I just kept thinking in my head, what if I'm paying for someones meal or drink that doesn't really need the help to pay for it? What if I actually offend someone instead? On to the next idea...
Some may call this cheating, because it's something that I'm already involved in, but I'm going to use it as part of my random act of kindness. Like I said earlier, I'm always looking for some kind of community service that I can participate in, and that is a real challenge for me because I stay at home with two kiddos and their dad travels a lot. So, if I'm going to volunteer, it's going to have to planned pretty far in advance, or I will have to be able to take my kids, and if I can't take my kids, then it has to be something I can do from home. There are not too many things that fall into those categories, but I did find something at my church that I've been helping with now for about six months. I'm part of the funeral luncheons committee. Basically, when someone has a funeral at our church, the church puts on a luncheon for the family. All of the food from that luncheon is donated by parishioners like me. I get an email from the person in charge telling me when the funeral is, and what items they need. Then, I sign up for whatever I want to make and bring it to the church at the appropriate time. It is a great thing to be a part of because I feel like I'm helping a family in a tough time, it's anonymous, and I can do it from home. I just made a dessert for a funeral about a week ago. I know my family has had similar luncheons when we have had a loved one pass, and it's nice to know there are people out there that care about your family. You feel loved and taken care of during a hard time. The family's always put a big thank you in the church bulletin after the luncheon.
Since I wasn't really sure if this is what the person had in mind when they came up with the topic. I thought maybe I should have a "back up" random act of kindness, just in case. So, I'm going to make two preemie hats to help out with Rosie's Cozies. It's a charity that I stumbled upon when I was looking for crochet blogs and patterns. You can check it out at The Dainty Daisy. Rosie's Cozies honors families that are fighting for their babies' lives in the NICU. A woman in Michigan makes and collects handmade preemie hats to donate to her local NICU. It's nice for these tiny little babies to have a hat of their own with some personality and cuteness rather than the standard hospital issued hats. It's also to honor the founder's daughter, Rosie who spent two weeks in the NICU before the lord chose to take her home. I am blessed with two healthy children, but I do know what it's like to have a baby in the NICU, and it is one of the worst feelings in the world. If I can do something to make any part of that experience even a little bit better, then I will. So, I'm excited to make two preemie hats for Rosie's Cozies. They are currently asking for animal themed hats, so this could be a challenge. I'll post pics of my creations when they are done.
Finally, I have to share this because I'm a proud mama at the moment. Sam's school sent home some paperwork from the American Heart Association about a program they are going to participate in called "Jump for the Heart." He was so excited to participate, but I have to admit that I was skeptical. I couldn't find any information about the "jumping" part of the event. When they were jumping, how they were jumping (counting number of jumps, what?) how the fundraising worked with the jumping. Well, I have to say, I told Sam I wasn't so sure, and he was very upset. I thought his motivation was mostly the prizes they can earn based on how much they raise, so I asked him if he even knew what his heart is? Does he even know how to jump rope? He gave me a full run down of what the heart is, how we need to keep it healthy, how some kids have special hearts, and need doctors to help them, even babies. So, I realized he had a general grasp on what this was all about, and thought it would be a great way for him to learn to give to others-especially during Lent. The one condition was, he had to put in some of his own money, and he had to ask for the donations from family himself. I'm proud to say he agreed to donate his own money, and ask for the donations. We set a goal of $50, and so far he has raised almost $100. I'm so proud of him.
So, what kind of random act of kindness could you do? Have you done one in the past? Need ideas? Check out the other ToT ladies' blogs to the right for inspiration.
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